All leaders from government, private sector and civil society organisations should shun corruption to provide good services, respect the people they serve and avoid any form of discrimination in the services they offer.

The call was made, yesterday, by Prime Minister Anastase Murekezi in Huye District while presiding over closure of an Itorero programme that brought together 786 directors of units from local government, central government and other public institutions from across the country.

Organised by the Ministry of Public Service and Labour in collaboration with the National Itorero Commission, the 10-day Itorero was conducted at Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare in Huye.

"You who trained here, and other government leaders and other leaders from the private sector and civil society, should understand that we share the common goal of providing good services to the people,” said the premier.

"As heads of units are at the core of planning and implementation of goverment policies and plans geared towards positive change in the socio-economic transformation of all Rwandans.”

Citing the findings of a 2012 report by the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR), the premier said improved service delivery can add $40 million to the national development annually.

Those are the reasons why the government committed to do all possible to ensure that by 2018 when the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy will be concluded, better services will be offered at a level 85 per cent, he added.

"However, the statistics we have today are not impressive, at the beginning of 2016, service delivery stood at 67.7 per cent in local government, 57.4 per cent in central government and 64.3 per cent in the private sector,” Murekezi said.

"To succeed in achieving the target of 85 per cent in service delivery requires more efforts, it team work and understanding each other, also requires to listen well to the people and offer them good services because it is our responsibility.”

On Auditor-General’s report

Premier Murekezi told the leaders that, as director of units, they have understood their role through Itorero in helping government institutions have a clean audit report and urged them to do their best to ensure they play their role in that endeavour.

Quoting the Auditor-General’s reports, he said 78 institutions (50 per cent) in 2014/15 had clean audits, 57 (36 per cent) in 2013/14 had clean audits, while in 2008, only 3 per cent of the institutions had clean audits.

"This shows that if we all worked together and fulfill our responsibilities, all the institutions can have clean audits. It is up to you, directors of units, to play a great role, no activity is done without your involvement, never allow illegal activities,” the premier said.

Augustin Kanyarukato, the director of good governance in Musanze District, said while he had attended other Itorero sessions before, the one they attended was quite different as it involved people with the same responsibilities.

"We are optimistic that what we learnt from here plus our skills will contribute to promotion of people centered services and to prevent corruption,” he said.

"We are committed to fight corruption, work as a team, especially in planning and tender specification and implementation of various projects,” said Francoise Umurera, director of finance at the University of Rwanda’s College of Education.

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